A fourth place finish in the first of this weekends two AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship double-header races sees Mat Mladin take another step closer to clinching his fourth American Superbike crown as the series closes to an end this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park, near Birmingham, Alabama.

Today’s opening 28-lap Superbike national was won by Mladin’s Yoshimura Suzuki teammate and championship challenger Aaron Yates who headed home Erion Honda’s Kurtis Roberts by 5.931 seconds after a thrilling race long battle.

With one race now remaining in this year’s championship, Mladin heads into tomorrow’s final holding a 29-point advantage and only needing to finish 23rd or better if Yates takes his second win of the weekend.

Mladin had been in the thick of the action on the early laps of the race and held the front running position for a number of laps as the race entered its mid-distance. With the lead group consisting of Yates, Roberts, Mladin, the American Honda’s of Miguel DuHamel and Ben Bostrom, plus the Ducati Austin entry of Italian Giovanni Bussei, the group of factory riders engaged in a very close and hard fought battle for the lead. DuHamel was the first to exit the group when he suffered a minor fall on lap ten before rejoining the race to finish seventh, while Bussei ran off the circuit in the closing laps allowing Mladin to consolidate fourth place. Mladin was also credited with the fastest lap of the race, posting a 1:26.502 on lap 5.

With a championship hanging in the balance discretion proved to be the best reward for Mladin as he eased his pace and allowed the others to go at it while he held a safer position on the circuit.

“It was a good ride today, had a go in the first half of the race and kept it out of trouble after that,” said Mladin. “I got through to the lead and led a few laps, but the boys were getting a bit close and it’s not the time of the year for me to be getting rough and banging bars with people. Halfway through the race I was actually having a ball out there and a bit of fun, but then I decided that this isn’t really the thing to be doing at this point. Aaron (Yates) needed to have a go and he was, while all of the others had nothing to lose and were just having a good go at each other. It was close hard racing, but something I didn’t need to be close to, so I was happy to roll off the throttle a little and bring it home behind them.”

Mladin’s championship fight took another step forward earlier in the day when he clinched his seventh pole position for the season, but more importantly, the extra championship point that he earned for that honour stretched his margin out to 38 prior to the start of the opening race.

His time of 1-min 25.176-secs became the benchmark for the new 3.70km (2.3 miles) circuit being the first time that the championship had run at the Alabama track. After being fastest in the opening qualifier, Yates gridded up alongside his teammate after recording the second fastest time with a 1:25.612, followed by DuHamel (1:26.100), with Bussei rounding out the front row of the grid with a 1:26.437.

“Qualifying went well and it’s still very important to score every point that you can because you just don’t know what may lie ahead,” remarked Mladin after securing his 31st career AMA Superbike pole. “It was still hard out there. We’ve had a lot of new tyres from Dunlop to test and evaluate. At times that’s been hard because of the amount of traffic out there, but we have worked our way towards a tyre that suits the conditions.”

The 2003 AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship concludes tomorrow afternoon with the running of the eighteenth race of the season.

Rd 17, AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship
RACE RESULT, 28 Laps - Top 10
1. Aaron Yates (Yoshimura Suzuki) 40:46.462 mins
2. Kurtis Roberts (Erion Honda) +5.931 secs
3. Ben Bostrom (American Honda) +7.775
4. Mat Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki) +26.736
5. Giovanni Bussei (Ducati Austin) +31.101
6. Shawn Higbee (KWS Suzuki) +50.740
7. Miguel DuHamel (American Honda) +1:06.644
8. Jordan Szoke (Corona Extra Suzuki) +1:18.233
9. Tom Kipp (Kawasaki Canada) +1:26.004
10. Vincent Haskovec (Hooters Suzuki) +1:28.932

COMBINED QUALIFYING, Saturday - Top 10
1. Mat Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki) 1:25.176 mins
2. Aaron Yates (Yoshimura Suzuki) 1:25.612
3. Miguel DuHamel (American Honda) 1:26.100
4. Giovanni Bussei (Ducati Austin) 1:26.437
5. Ben Bostrom (American Honda) 1:26.542
6. Kurtis Roberts (Erion Honda) 1:26.560
7. Steve Rapp (Valvoline EMGO Suzuki) 1:28.495
8. Shawn Higbee (KWS Suzuki) 1:28.498
9. Vincent Haskovec (Hooters Suzuki) 1:28.774
10. Chris Caylor (Suzuki) 1:28.863

2003 AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship (points after 17 of 18 rounds) - 1. M Mladin (521); 2. A Yates (492), 3. B Bostrom (461); 4. K Roberts (438), 5. M DuHamel (417); 6. S Higbee (371), 7. E Bostrom (350), 8. J Pridmore (339), 9. J Szoke (283), 10. V Haskovec (262).